It just keeps getting deeper and deeper.
Wall Street Journal: State Department had no Inspector General appointed during Hillary's tenure as Secretary of State.

"Five months after Mrs. Clinton left office, Mr. Obama nominated a permanent inspector general, who was confirmed by the Senate three months later.

The vacancy in the top watchdog spot left the State Department with no confirmed inspector general for more than five years, the longest gap since the position was created in 1957, according to department records. While other agencies have had no permanent inspectors general at various points in recent years, some of those vacancies were due to a lack of confirmation by the Senate on nominees put forward by Mr. Obama."

Bloomberg: One More Question on Hillary Clinton E-Mails: Where Was the Watchdog?http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-24/one-more-question-on-hillary-e-mails-where-was-the-watchdog-Reporter Arit John: "One of the many unanswered questions of the Hillary Clinton e-mail story has been: Whose job was it to raise and address concerns about her exclusive use of a private account? According to open government advocates, it would have been the agency’s permanent, independent Inspector General—someone nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate—if such a person had existed. "

Note that it was the WSJ that also broke the story about Israel allegedly spying on the Iran-US nuclear negotiations, if they can be called that. But, since we're told that anything ever touched by Rupert Murdoch is inherently untrustworthy, I suppose we should all just ignore that source and rely on Mother Jones, TDPS, and other "progressive" news outlets, eh metta?

Deplorable, but how much of "Five months after Mrs. Clinton left office, Mr. Obama nominated a permanent inspector general, who was confirmed by the Senate three months later s due to Congress and the GOP refusing to approve any appointment made by the president?

On the other hand, the whole thins is so rotten that I start to loose all hope of cleaning the Augean stables that Washington has become.

This is all starting to sound very Benghazi-like. All breathless fundraising outrage with no evidence of any wrongdoing. Or the IRS scandal that never was. Republicans do this from time to time because their obedient groups line up and get soooo excited and they write checks. And never notice that their reps in Congress are doing nothing. Nothing. Well, except fundraising.

tazzari saidDeplorable, but how much of "Five months after Mrs. Clinton left office, Mr. Obama nominated a permanent inspector general, who was confirmed by the Senate three months later s due to Congress and the GOP refusing to approve any appointment made by the president?

On the other hand, the whole thins is so rotten that I start to loose all hope of cleaning the Augean stables that Washington has become.

I thought the funniest was when Joe Biden's son became a member of the Board of Directors of Ukraine's largest natural gas consortium

wtf, I guess that US-led coup really paid off - the swamps of Washington, DC have never had more muck

tazzari saidDeplorable, but how much of "Five months after Mrs. Clinton left office, Mr. Obama nominated a permanent inspector general, who was confirmed by the Senate three months later is due to Congress and the GOP refusing to approve any appointment made by the president?

That was my suspicion at first. I looked at several other sources for any information about that and found none. All indications are that Obama did not ever nominate anyone for the IG position. Quote from Arit John's article:

"For five years, including all of Clinton’s time as secretary, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General never had a confirmed inspector. Instead, it was lead by acting inspector Harold W. Geisel, a former ambassador who was accused of being too cozy to agency leadership by transparency groups like the Project on Government Oversight. Throughout the first half of President Obama’s first term, the absence of a State Department Inspector General while internal scandals and Benghazi rocked the department drew bipartisan criticism.

“For no one to raise concerns, it’s almost impossible to believe,” said Danielle Brian, the executive director for POGO."

tazzari saidOn the other hand, the whole thing is so rotten that I start to loose all hope of cleaning the Augean stables that Washington has become.

It's really sad to say I feel the same way. We'd honestly all be better off to round up everyone in Congress, plus the top 15% of bureaucrats plus all the lobbyists and force them to provide old time bloody sword and spear amusement in football stadiums. Then, implore someone like Jeanne Kirkpatrick to accept a one term bipartisan nomination to the presidency to get in there and finish cleaning house.

It's really sad to say I feel the same way. We'd honestly all be better off to round up everyone in Congress, plus the top 15% of bureaucrats plus all the lobbyists and force them to provide old time bloody sword and spear amusement in football stadiums. Then, implore someone like Jeanne Kirkpatrick to accept a one term bipartisan nomination to the presidency to get in there and finish cleaning house.

Can we get up a petition? I'd like to be the second person to sign (I'll leave the honor of the first to you!)

Still, it has to be said that politics is an area with huge temptation, an area which lends itself to partizanship and corruption. Even the act of compromise, which is often how governing gets done, blurrs the edges. I'm convinced that there are well-meaning people who just get sucked into it all, and I wonder how many of them look at themselves later, and wonder "how did I get here? What lead me to this?" Even our electoral system/cycle temps toward corruption.

Probably an argument for term limits, public funding of elections, and in many cases, a much, much small legislator-to-citizen ratio.

tazzari saidIt's really sad to say I feel the same way. We'd honestly all be better off to round up everyone in Congress, plus the top 15% of bureaucrats plus all the lobbyists and force them to provide old time bloody sword and spear amusement in football stadiums. Then, implore someone like Jeanne Kirkpatrick to accept a one term bipartisan nomination to the presidency to get in there and finish cleaning house.

Can we get up a petition? I'd like to be the second person to sign (I'll leave the honor of the first to you!)

Still, it has to be said that politics is an area with huge temptation, an area which lends itself to partizanship and corruption. Even the act of compromise, which is often how governing gets done, blurrs the edges. I'm convinced that there are well-meaning people who just get sucked into it all, and I wonder how many of them look at themselves later, and wonder "how did I get here? What lead me to this?" Even our electoral system/cycle temps toward corruption.

Probably an argument for term limits, public funding of elections, and in many cases, a much, much small legislator-to-citizen ratio.

And much. much better education!

No. Term limits public funding of elections etc are the wrong directions to go.

The problem is that for too damned long the criminals have been in charge of the prison, running it like they own it. They write their own rules, enforce their own rules, give themselves their raises and perks... that shit needs to come to a stop and more importantly they need to be reined in and made responsible for their individual and collective behavior.

Who makes all the rules concerning ethical behavior for Congress & Senate?

Who makes and enforces all the rules concerning ethical behavior for Congress & Senate?